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Anguished family of man missing since 2010 watch news of murders from afar

For over seven years, Navaseelan Navaratnam has been carefully guarding a devastating truth from his 80-year-old Sri Lankan mother: no one knows where his brother, Skandaraj, is.

“She is a heart patient,” said Navaratnam. “I don’t want to hurt her.”

Skandaraj Navaratnam, 40, was last seen in the early hours of Sept. 10, 2010, leaving Zipperz, a bar near Church and Carlton Sts., with an unknown man. (Toronto Star file photo)

Skandaraj Navaratnam, 40, was last seen in the early hours of Sept. 10, 2010, leaving Zipperz, a now closed bar near Church and Carlton Sts., with an unknown man.

The case of his disappearance would become part of Project Houston — an eighteen-month long police task force looking for Skandaraj and two other men who went missing between 2010 and 2012: Majeed Kayhan, 58, and Abdulbasir Faizi, 42.

On Monday, Toronto Police announced three additional counts of first-degree murder have been laid against suspected serial killer Bruce McArthur. One of those counts was in relation to Kayhan’s death.

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Skandaraj’s friends and family, have yet to hear any new information.

Speaking to the Star from Dubai, Navaratnam, 42, tells a story of three brothers—two in Sri Lanka (aged 52 and 44) and himself—who continue to “hope and pray that nothing has happened” to their brother.

Skandaraj was the second oldest of the four brothers. This year marks his 47th birthday.

Navaratnam said that Skandaraj moved to Canada from Sri Lanka a few years before he went missing. The family is Tamil—a minority community in Sri Lanka that faces many ethnic and political tensions.

Skandaraj chose to leave, said Navaratnam. “He never came back.”

“We were worried, always asking him to come back,” he said. “We told him how we haven’t seen you for such a long time. But we knew he was okay.”

The brothers would talk on the phone when they could. Navaratnam says that Facebook was the most constant form of communication. Once a month, or once every two months, they would chat.

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Sometime in 2007 or 2008, Skandaraj told his younger brother that he was gay. The family didn’t know. “He never told me about any of his relationships,” said Navaratnam. “We told him ‘we accept you for who you are’…but he never said anything else, and I didn’t push him.”

Navaratnam can’t remember the last conversation he had with Skandaraj. Instead he remembers the message he got from one of his friends — he didn’t know any of his brother’s friends in Canada before that.

“His friend said no one had seen him for the past one or two weeks, that he went alone,” said Navaratnam. “I told them I don’t have any information. He hadn’t contacted us.”

Skandaraj wasn’t the kind of person who goes missing, said his brother. “Even if he does he pops up in one or two days.”

He always informed someone of his whereabouts, said his brother. ‘Someone always knew [where he was],” he said. “If he didn’t contact us for a week or a month, we were sure he’d contact us.”

But that assurance quickly went away when more friends began noticing his disappearance.

“Hope he is fine,” wrote Navaratnam on Facebook on Sept 19, 2010. “My bro in Canada is missing and we are looking for him…for 12 days no news of him.”

Toronto police were the next to contact him, but Navaratnam had no information of his whereabouts. On and off, he sent emails to Toronto Police, but they said there had no leads.

On Sept 21, 2010 — 11 days after his brother was last seen — he pleaded on Facebook in a message written entirely in capital letters: “Anyone in Toronto Canada who can help find my bro please let me know.” He attached a photo Toronto Police were circulating on a missing persons poster at the time: a smiling, dark skinned man with a black hair and a black goatee.

One week later, on Sept 29, 2010, he wrote on Facebook again: “Spoken to Toronto Police department and they have no updates yet apart from what we know.”

He wouldn’t post again until Sept. 6, 2011: “It’s been one year now and still no news of him.” The message was punctuated by three sad face emoticons.

When news of McArthur’s arrest reached him in Dubai earlier this month, and Skandaraj’s name reappeared in the newspapers linking the two as romantic partners, Navaratnam reached out to the detective he had corresponded with seven years ago, who told him the investigation was still ongoing.

The police detective and the brother of the missing man are once again in touch, over seven years later.

“We’re trying to do whatever we can to get some information,” said Navaratnam. “But no one has any information.”

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